Arcata boys roll Del Norte in Crescent City

CRESCENT CITY -- Latrell Wilson scored a game-high 15 points, including a perfect seven-for-seven from the free-throw line, as the Arcata Tigers opened the contest on a 13-0 run and closed the evening with a 25-12 run en route to a 52-35 victory over the Del Norte Warriors in Big Five action at Crescent City Friday.

"We've been getting off to quick starts in league," Tigers head coach Allan Schmidt said of his team's early surge that put the home team in catch-up mode straight from the word go.

While the Tigers were clicking on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, the home team was having issues getting out of the starting blocks early on.

The Warriors were held scoreless and trailed 13-0 before a Dylan Pease offensive rebound and put-back put Del Norte on the board for the first time with 2:30 remaining in the opening quarter.

That initial score seemed to get the Warriors going, at least for a while, as the home team began pounding the backboards and giving itself multiple looks at the basket which ultimately kept the margin manageable.

Trailing by nine at the end of the opening quarter, the Warriors eventually got to within four at 27-23 midway into the second period, due in large part to the work of Aaron Fitch and Shawn DeArman on the interior. Fitch led the Warriors with 12 points, six of those coming from the free-throw line.

"That (the Warriors ability to rebound) got their offense started, particularly in the second quarter," Schmidt said.

That four point spread was as close as the Warriors would get the rest of the evening, as the Tigers simply put the clamps on anything the home team even attempted to do at the offensive end, turning those defensive stops into, at the very least, multiple looks at the basket and at best frequent trips to the free-throw line.

All told, the Tigers converted 24-of-30 attempts from the stripe, including 17-of-22 in the second half alone, while the Warriors connected on six of their seven attempts from the stripe.